Slovak drivers go beyond borders to save on fuel

Slovaks often travel abroad to the neighbouring Visegrad Group (V4) countries for cheaper foods. They are now using such shopping trips to refill their cars, as motor fuel also costs less beyond Slovakia’s borders, said Lucia Dovalová, analyst with Poštová Banka.

Slovaks can save money when refuelling in the remaining three V4 countries - Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic - but also in Austria.

“In all these countries the price of petrol and diesel is lower compared with Slovakia,” said Dovalová, as cited by the TASR newswire.

Drivers pay the least for motor fuel in Poland. In the case of petrol it is as much as 17 percent less and in the case of diesel it is 10 percent less.

In terms of food, in the Czech Republic and Hungary prices are 8.9 percent lower than in Slovakia. Compared with Poland the difference is as high as almost 30 percent.